


This Will Never End 'Cause I Want More

by TheSofterGentlerMe



Series: The Lyrical Anthology [11]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Season/Series 04, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25713484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSofterGentlerMe/pseuds/TheSofterGentlerMe
Summary: Catra conquers Salineas and she's well on the way to getting everything she's ever wanted... or will at least admit she's ever wanted.
Series: The Lyrical Anthology [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767634
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	This Will Never End 'Cause I Want More

**Author's Note:**

> Shall we?

The last time Catra had seen the Salineas Sea Gate she’d been getting towed out of the water in defeat as she watched Adora with her new friends. Now, she watched as it fell and she felt a fierce pride as she stood beside Hordak and watched it happen. The first of the Horde soldiers rushed through the gap and it wasn’t long before smoke started drifting into the sky. 

“Well done, Force Captain Catra,” Hordak said. 

Catra smiled at the compliment and thanked him. The war had been going so well lately and this was a crowning moment in her success. All she’d ever wanted was to succeed, to win, it’d been her dream and her dream was coming true.

_No it’s not,_ the small voice inside of her said as she stepped off the skiff and onto the dock. She bristled a little at the voice and tuned it out as she strode forward at Hordak’s side towards the town. Radio reports came in of very little resistance and she smiled. Her little trick with Double Trouble had worked out well. No princesses were present and by the time they realized what had happened, she’d have forces firmly entrenched in the town and in control of the Gate. As she walked towards the gate she had a brief flash of Adora in her head.

_I wish she was here,_ her little inner voice said. She scowled as she shoved the thought down.

As she walked towards the gate, soldiers saw her face. It held anger in it like a glowing coal and they all wondered what had happened, who had screwed up, and hoped they weren’t going to be the focus of that fury if it was unleashed. Four soldiers quick marched past her with two banners and Catra knew what would make her feel better. 

“Hey, you! Get over here!” she shouted.

The four soldiers quickly went over to here and awkwardly saluted and then stood to rigid attention. Catra grinned a feral grin at their discomfort. She knew that part of their fear was Hordak but part of it was her as well and she felt herself feel better for it. 

_Feels good to be on top doesn’t it? Bet Shadow Weaver felt that way,_ the little voice said. 

The grin disappeared and the soldiers tried to stand even more to attention. 

“Where are you headed with that?” Catra said.

One spoke up and saluted out of pure nerves and said, “We’re supposed to hang it in town.”

“Not anymore. You two, get to the other side of the rocks there next to the Gate and get that up NOW! You two, come with me,” Catra said as she strode off. She went to another pile of rocks near the gate and grabbed the pole that the banner was wrapped around. 

“Alright, come on! Get it attached and let’s get this put up!” Catra said. The two soldiers worked quickly and soon the three of them raised the Horde banner. She saw the other two soldiers on the other side of the Gate doing the same. 

“There we go!” she laughed. She felt a fierce joy and happiness as she watched the banner flutter in the breeze. “You two are with me for now. Come on!” 

With that she paraded into the town. She looked around and laughed as she saw the residents scrambling to get away and Horde troops chasing after them. She heard a blast and saw Hordak blow the roof off of one of the large buildings. The town was mostly stone and coral but the roofs were made of flammable material and it burned. Oh, how it burned and as the smoke blew through the street, Catra felt a fierce exhilaration. 

_What do you think Adora would say?_ the little inner voice tried to say. 

Catra turned around to the two soldiers following her and suddenly stuck her hand out. 

“Give me that stun baton!” she said to one of them. He quickly turned it over to her. 

“Let’s go find some rebels. You, go first,” Catra said as she pointed at the soldier she’d disarmed. 

He looked at the other soldier for a moment and she turned the baton on and said in a low voice, “Are you disobeying an order soldier?” 

“No, Force Captain!” he said as he quickly went out ahead of them and started walking towards the part of town that still hadn’t been fully flooded with troops. Catra followed with a smile. 

She never did see anyone besides Horde soldiers up close. Most of the town had quickly fled when the first blasts had blown through the Sea Gate and the rest had done so as the Horde soldiers flooded in. She’d seen a family briefly trying to get a cart loaded with stuff but they’d fled when she’d rounded the corner. She’d considered chasing them down, it wouldn’t have been hard as fast as she was, but by that point the whole thing had already started to feel a bit flat. She’d yelled after them that she was coming for them and gave a halfhearted chuckle as they’d ran harder. 

_Shadow Weaver would have liked that little mental touch,_ the quiet inner voice said. _You learned from her well._

She grunted and went walking back towards the dock and absentmindedly twirled the stun baton as she did. She looked around as she did and gave a half-hearted smile as she saw Horde banners flying and Horde soldiers marching through the streets. She thought about how she’d tell Scorpia all about this and maybe even hang out with her some. 

_Probably should, she’s probably all upset still but hey, she’ll get over it,_ Catra thought to herself. 

She saw a Horde banner placed on a hill across the water from the Gate and gave a little smile again as she settled herself into a comfy spot behind some rocks. She tossed the stun baton back to the soldier she took it from. 

“Get out of here. Go, you know, conquer some more,” Catra said. 

The two soldiers saluted her and quickly left her alone. As she sat on the rocks as twilight came on, she was thinking about the successful completion of the mission. She remembered the joy earlier but it felt flat now. She just couldn’t get excited about it at the moment. 

_Probably just tired. Yeah, tired, that’s the reason, sure, that’s the reason, tired and not…,_ she thought before cutting it off.

As she sat and stared at the waves a brief flash of light caught her eye across the water. She looked up and watched intently but didn’t see anything. She wasn’t sure but she thought the flash had been sparkles. 

“Wish I’d kept those two around. Could’ve grabbed some binoculars off them,” Catra muttered to herself as she watched.

As she watched, a part of her hoped the flash had been Glimmer teleporting. She hoped that Glimmer, and she thought the name with an almost spitting sound, would see what Catra had done. That Glimmer would know just how much she’d failed. She hoped Glimmer would take it back to Ado… her, and let her know what had happened, how well Catra had done. 

_See what I can do when no one holds me back? SEE WHAT I CAN DO!?_ she thought. 

Smoke blew out of the town as night fell and around her the soldiers carried out their duties. No one consulted her and she grew irritated. She’d put this together well and it was running smoothly but no one was bothering her with their incessant stupid questions and she stalked back towards the docks to find out what was going on. One Horde sergeant had her head down and was looking at a data pad when Catra walked up to her in the dark. 

“Soldier! Report!” Catra snarled at her. 

The soldier snapped to attention and saluted as she tried not to fumble the data pad and said, “Force Captain! Everything is accounted for!”

As the soldier began to stutter through a report on her unit and what they’d done and where they stood in operational readiness, Catra slowly extended her claws and began tapping them on the side of her head piece while maintaining hard eye contact with the sergeant. The sergeant became more and more nervous as Catra never broke eye contact. Finally, she came to a halt and stood and tried not to tremble. 

Catra nodded and let her claws slip back as she said, “Excellent work. I’ll be sure and let Lord Hordak know of your… excellence.” 

The sergeant heard a compliment but the way Catra had phrased it sounded almost like a threat and she didn’t know of any way to respond except to snap off another salute and try not to think too hard about it. Catra nodded in recognition and then walked off. She’d felt better for all of a space of a few seconds but she fell back into what felt like her baseline state of annoyance and anger. 

_I wonder why?_ the voice said. 

Catra shook her head and settled in one of the transport skiffs for the night. She hit her comm badge and said, “Hey, Scorpia. I’m settling in for the night. Talk with you tomorrow.” 

The badge stayed silent and she shrugged as she curled up in corner next to a few crates. 

“Probably still just mad. Sheesh, you’d think she’d let it go. I’d never hold a grudge like that,” Catra muttered to herself. 

_Of course you wouldn’t, never, not you, of course not,_ the voice said again. 

Catra shook her head in irritation. This was a happy day. She’d scored a major victory for the Horde and was ever so much closer to crushing the Rebellion. Hordak was pleased with her, she had a secret agent wreaking havoc inside the Rebellion, and whenever Scorpia stopped sulking she’d help her come up with the next step. She’d grind them all under. She’d win. She had this. She did her best to keep those thoughts echoing in her head as she went to sleep curled up by herself out of the way and no one saw the few tears she shed as she slipped off to slumber.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank for reading! 
> 
> This little idea has been kicking around for a while. I had re-read my own first fic, I Am Teaching Myself How To Be Free, and there’s a part in it where Catra and Adora are going to Salineas after the fall of Horde Prime and Catra has a bit of a panicky moment as she realizes she’s about to walk into the town she personally conquered. I thought, “Hey, you know what’ll be fun? Writing Catra doing the conquering!” Then I spent a harrowing time in a very angry Catra headspace. My wife mentioned how angry she sounded when I read it to her and I said, “Well, at least I’m not trying to do season three Catra.” I can’t even imagine that and frankly don’t want to try. 
> 
> The lyrics from this one come from If I Had A Heart by Fever Ray. Obviously the lyrics I’m using in the way to mean that it’s not going to end because Catra wants more, she wants Adora. Or, to put it with the full verse, “This will never end 'cause I want more\More, give me more\Give me more.” The music itself is very almost monotone and driving and to me it sounds like the inside of Catra’s head as she tries to cope with how she feels versus how she thought she’d feel. I should also mention I broke my own rule for The Lyrical Anthology as this is very much not post-season five content but heck, they were my rules to begin with.


End file.
